***Edit - you can fill out the survey directly to First Am by clicking the “MLXChange Survey” link above***

The Austin Board of Realtors recently changed our MLS service provider from TEMPO to MLXChange. TEMPO was definitely flawed, but it was functional (and we all learned to work with it.) Switching systems would have been the perfect opportunity to address the problems, and improve upon TEMPO. Obvious problems like lack of Mac compatibility, lack of Firefox compatibility, load times, etc…

When we switched to MLXChange, none of these problems were addressed. However, this isn’t my soapbox to gripe about the old problems that weren’t addressed. I would, however, like to address the shortcomings of MLXChange - the functionality that TEMPO had, that was lost in the new system.

I’m going to start a list, and please feel free to comment on a solution, or any other problems that you see. Again, please address functionality that we had with TEMPO, that we now do not have with MLXChange. I will continue to edit this post to include relevant solutions/problems.

1. Clients can not bookmark their Client Gateway link. (No solution - confirmed with MLXChange help desk.)
2. Can not create searches using latitude & longitude parameters (drawing a map box) and save them for later use, or for a client’s Gateway.
3. We are unable to send a client a link to their Client Gateway without sending “Agent Recommendations.” This is confusing to the client, if we merely want to send them a link to the Gateway.
4. Inability to open the map search in a new window.
5. Tempo had the ability to open multiple listings in the same window, and you could just scroll. Now, if you want to view multiple listings, you have to keep hitting the “next” button, which is much slower.
6. The load time of MLXChange is much slower than Tempo.
7. MLXChange freezes often.
8. You can’t open a listing in a new window. With Tempo, you could open a listing in a new window & drag it to a second screen, so you could run comps, enter listings, etc without printing the sheet off. With MLXChange, we’re killing more trees!
9. MLXChange has broken many of the features provided by 3rd party service providers (such as virtual tours.)
10. You can’t refine a search using the map feature. Example: With Tempo, you could run a search, pop the map, and use the polygon, circle, or square tool to refine the search further by area.

So…we’re running pretty behind, but we’re under budget (we’re actually a little over, but it’s because we added a bunch of stuff - all the planned work is in under budget.)  We’re 98% complete - the concrete countertop is being formed right now, and will be in within 10 days.  Other than that, we just need to create the punchlist, run it, blue tape, & clean the exterior.  Here are pics - bear in mind that we don’t have our furniture set up, and it’s not decorated.  Oh - the pomo Snoop Dogg painting is definitely staying.  I put my foot down on that one.

Make sure & click more for more pics…

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Alright…this is old news, but I wanted to post it anyways.  360 Condos are celebrated their “topping out” on 11/12 by hoisting a live oak to roof of the 44-story project. The 360 condos will be completed early next year.

360 Condos will be the first completed high rise project of the many in construction. They sold briskly & were priced on the entry level side of downtown condos. The finish out is still extremely nice, as is the project overall.

We all saw it coming…Trulia is a business, and they were going to have to capitalize on their investment better at some point.  Who better to market to than real estate agents?  So now, we have the “opportunity” to purchase featured listings on Trulia.  Here are my (main) problems with this.

1) IDX is FAR superior to anything Trulia can provide.  IDX reaches out to every visitor of every web savvy Realtor in a given market.  In Austin, TX alone, there are over 2000 agent websites that display every listed property on their websites.

2) Trulia doesn’t provide localized statistics.  They will provide you traffic stats, but they’re providing national stats.  Their only claim is “2 million monthly visits.”  In order for me to make an educated decision, I want to see how many searches are performed for the Austin MSA on their website.  I love to gamble, and I’ll bet big money that my sites completely blow their Austin search volume away.

3) Simply entering a listing into Trulia (or their competitors) is redundant. I have many clients ask me to enter their listings into the slew of inferior real estate websites, and I try to educate them - but 9 times out of 10, I have to waste my (assistant’s) time and enter the listings.  Again, we can’t see the true traffic statistics, however, I track all incoming call sources, and Trulia accounts for less than 1% of all traffic.  Entering clients’ listings into third party marketing sites is about as effective as placing an ad in the newspaper - it’s not.

4) It’s Cheap…Right Now.  Have you checked out the price for the Realtor.com featured listings?  They stuck the knife a couple of years ago - and twisted it this year. Trulia Featured Listing ROI is bad at $50/month (their current cost) and it will be horrible at $100, $200, or more.

There’s really nothing that can sway my opinion about Trulia, other than localized traffic statistics.  The only solution we have is to treat Trulia like any other inferior form of marketing - and not use them.  Since we can still enter basic listings, I will do so if a client requests it.  However, if a client requests a featured listing, I will suggest a # of more effective ways to spend $50.

Alright…I’m jacking w/ another new theme now - Mandigo.  It has tons of backend features, but it’s a little more complicated.  It’s definitely going to be jacked for a few days (unless I find more free time.)

I’m messing with a new theme for the blog - Cleaker - and am trying to tweak the new header correctly.  It will probably be a bit jacked for a few days.  Sorry…

The Monarch, which started out initially as an apartment highrise & flipped to condo sales, has flipped back to its original conception as an apartment community. The project looks to be about 80% complete, and the word through the grapevine is that its investors set an end of October goal of 80% sold in order to move forward with the project as a condo sale.

There’s been a ton of speculation about the downtown Austin condo market. I’m a little leery of it - especially with the recent shifts in the mortgage market. Most of the projects are very close to sold out in pre-construction. However, I think that a large percentage of the buyers downtown are in the volatile “alt-A” category & will be very curious to see how many of the contracts convert.

Regardless, I think the Monarch’s conversion back to a rental apartment community is a good shift for downtown. It adds much needed lease units, and takes a nice chunk of sale inventory out of the market - which will help prop up the prices.

The Austin city council voted to lease space to Viva Aerobus to build 3 temporary terminals at Austin Bergstrom. This will mean some super-cheap flights to Mexico, which will be really killer. If you check out the flights from Monterey to Cancun on their website, they’re currently offering round trip tickets for ~$100US. Even if the flights are twice that from Austin to Cancun, it will make Cancun, Cozumel, Playa, Tulum, & more very viable weekend getaways. I’m looking forward to some really cool last minute trips!